Tears, cheers, pink eye, stray dogs: Sochi Olympics had it all

Oakland County natives winning gold, open manholes, Bode’s tears, an American sweep in slopestyle, T.J. Oshie’s goal, Bob Costas’ red eyes -- the Winter Games in Sochi delivered and then some.

Starting Feb. 5 with new team figure skating events and ending Feb. 23 with a closing ceremony (beginning at 11 a.m. on CBC and at 8:30 p.m. on NBC), the first-ever Russian Winter Olympics featured a record 98 events and 6,000 athletes.

For Oakland County, the biggest win came Feb. 17 when ice dancers Meryl Davis of West Bloomfield and Charlie White of Bloomfield Township won the gold medal, a first for the U.S. team.

Congratulations poured in across Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Advertisement

Morgan Taylor (@rmorgantaylor) tweeted, “So so SO incredibly inspired by @Meryl_Davis and @CharlieaWhite YOU GUYS ARE AMAZING! #TeamUSA #MerylandCharlie pic.twitter.com/ly2Yrhbphw.”

Commenting about the Canadian competition, Gibson Girl (@gibson_girl) wrote, “Nothing against Virtue & Moir, but they are being sore losers. They had their moment in 2010 - now it’s another’s turn. #MerylandCharlie.”

On Jimmy Fallon’s first Tonight Show Feb. 17 during an Olympic segment, a photo of Danny Davis with his shoulder-length hair flashed on the screen with the tagline, “Most likely to be able to turn water into weed.”

Davis responded, thanking Fallon with an Instagram caption, “Any press is good press??????”

Under a posed shot featuring Charlie White and his angelic tousled blonde locks, Fallon read the caption, “Most likely to say ‘Fear Not For I Bring Tidings of Joy’.”

A Davis fan, @lebt07, tweeted, “Loved your runs, Danny!! You have so much style, wish I could learn from someone like you!! And ---- all the negative people they are jealous!! Like to see them do better!!”

Some snowboarders commented on social media that the Sochi halfpipe run was in poor condition.

nva497, wrote to them all, “You should be proud! It’s not your fault the pipe was made with a Snoopy Sno Cone Machine. Fun to watch you.”

Evan Bates, ice dancing partner of Madison Chock, both of whom train at the Novi Ice Arena, watched his teammates and commented on Twitter, “Just got the chills watching @Meryl_Davis and @CharlieaWhite stand on the podium! #landofthefree #homeofthebrave.”

Bates also kept up on local news while in Sochi, Tweeting, “I love waking up overseas to see that @umichbball #beatOhio last night. #GoBlue.”

Ann Arbor siblings, Alex and Maia Shibutani, placed ninth in ice dancing but first in supporting fellow athletes on Twitter.

Huffington Post reported “Sochi On Tinder,” a mobile tool for dating, carried postings of photos of athletes, “many of whom probably do not need a dating app to get a date.”

Tinder’s creator reported a 400 percent spike in use in Sochi since the start of the Games.

Gay rights stories didn’t dominate the Olympics like they did in the weeks before the games. A transgender activist who held up a sign that read, “Gay Is Okay” was removed from Olympic Park and detained by police for about three hours.

Stray dogs roamed the streets of Sochi and media reported Russians were destroying the dogs. Animal lovers across the world rose up, writing petitions, calling the dog extermination inhumane.

Members of the performance-art group Pussy Riot were attacked on a public plaza Feb. 19 by Cossacks, a militia group, brandishing whips and discharging pepper spray, a day after police picked them up and held them for nearly four hours without charges.

An Associated Press video showed the Cossacks advancing on the five women and one man with whips, knocking them down and striking them. The performers had just been shown gathering quickly at an outdoor plaza in Sochi, about 20 miles from the Olympic Park, taking off coats, putting on their ski masks and preparing to perform when the Cossacks attacked.

The Cossacks roughly pulled off the masks and flicked their whips at the group. When the group escaped they tweeted what had happened, providing details and photos. They had been preparing to make a video of a new protest song, “Putin will teach you how to love your Motherland,” when the Cossacks appeared and set upon them.

Twitter responded after an NBC interviewer pressed skier Bode Miller following his bronze medal win in the Feb. 16 super-G and an emotional Miller broke down on camera.

Miller tweeted afterwards, “My emotions were very raw, she asked the questions that every interviewer would have, pushing is part of it, she wasn’t trying to cause pain.”

Hockey player Cam Fowler, who grew up Farmington Hills, tweeted after a Feb. 13 game, “Such an amazing experience playing in my first Olympic game. #TeamUSA.”

The infection spread to both eyes, and Matt Lauer was called in as a substitute while the eyes healed.

Costas’ absence ended a streak dating back to 1988 or 157 consecutive appearances as NBC’s Olympics anchor in primetime.

Trained at Bloomfield Hills-based Detroit Skating Club, the top U.S. men’s figure skater Jeremy Abbott fell hard during his short skate. He continued to skate and people Tweeted their admiration.

Julie Nelson wrote, “Jeremy Abbott showing everyone what it means to be an Olympian. After horrible fall he gets back up and completes routine w/heart. #Courage.”

Others, however, criticized him as a choker in international competitions. Afterward Huffington Post ran a story with a furious Abbott stating, “I just want to put my middle finger in the air and say a big ‘--you’ to everyone who has ever said that to me because they’ve never stood in my shoes. Nobody has to stand center ice in front of a million people and put an entire career on the line for eight minutes of their life when they’ve been doing it for 20-some years,” and “if you think that that’s not hard, then you’re a damn idiot.” Abbott wound up in 12th place in a field of 24 skaters.

Sochi volunteer Taylor Dery of Holly sent updates and photos to The Oakland Press.

“The international volunteers think very highly of the U.S.,” she said. “To me, the music, TV shows, and movies they watch are 75 percent American-based. The weather is very different from home. We’re enjoying the 45-50 degree weather in the coastal cluster. But, there is heavy snowfall in the mountains.”

About the Author

Carol Hopkins covers Waterford and White Lake townships. She has a master's degree in journalism from the University of Michigan, and she worked as a senior editor for Detroit Monthly magazine and as a reporter for The Oakland Press since 2003. Reach the author at carol.hopkins@oakpress.com
or follow Carol on Twitter: @OPCarolHopkins.